You could imagine what Peter’s audience might have been thinking. They were in a situation in which they were suffering and being persecuted. As aforementioned, not because Christianity was illegal, for it probably wasn’t at that time, but they were being mistreated (possibly seriously mistreated) nonetheless. They were no doubt growing weary of interacting with these people day after day, whether it was those in government, or employers, or unbelieving spouses. They were likely being treated like dirt. And now Peter had announced to them that though so many were persecuting them God had chosen them as his own, called them out of darkness, declared them his own possession, and called them a chosen race and holy nation, building them into a holy temple. It had been sounded loud and clear, Christ was their Lord and God was their Father. They had an authority that was not of this world even as their ultimate home was not of this world.

And you can almost feel the temptation to respond to this in saying, “Just wait until my boss hears about this. Just wait until my unbelieving husband realizes that I have an authority greater than him.” Since Christ is their authority, are they now free to live, bucking any other authority in this world? What should Christianity look like in a setting where those in authority are abusing people for following Christ? Peter answers that question in our section this morning, 1 Peter 2:13-3:12. His answer, however, may be surprising because the theme of our section this morning could be summed up in one word: submit. As those who live supremely under the authority of one who is not of this world, they were called to submit in this world. What should Christians live like where they have interact with individuals and under individuals who hate the very Lord we worship and follow? Peter instructs us in that very question in 2:13-3:12.

Peter had already prepared us for what we find in this section by wrapping up the last section writing in verse 12, “Keep your conduct among the Gentiles honorable, so that when they speak against you as evildoers, they may see your good deeds and glorify God on the day of visitation.” Now, he gives us a practical picture of what that looks like. As those living under the authority of Christ …

We are all to submit to governing authorities (2:13-17)

As those whose chief authority is Christ, do we tell governing authorities to take a hike? No. Rather, Peter writes, “Be subject for the Lord’s sake to every human institution, whether it be to the emperor as supreme, or to governors as sent by him to punish those who do evil and to praise those who do good” (2:13-14).

Rather than bucking governing authorities because of allegiance to Christ Peter tells his readers (and us) that they are to be subject to every human institution “for the Lord’s sake.” That is, as Christians, we are called to submit to those who govern and may rule over us except where they would call us to sin. I say “except where they would call us to sin” because I think that is implied in “for the Lord’s sake” in verse 13 (after all, how could you sin for the Lord’s sake?) and is spelled out more clearly in the following verses and sections. However, except where we are commanded to sin, we are called to submit to governing authorities.

That is to say, in things like the speed limit, or paying taxes, or copyright laws or thousands of other things that the government tells us we must obey, God says, “Obey them.” Therefore, when we drive down the road dismissing traffic laws (even (or especially) the speed limit), we are sinning and must repent. And this doesn’t simply go for those things commanded by the highest authority of our government, but even the lower representatives. Peter said that we must even obey those who come to punish those who do evil and praise those who do good. Now, I don’t know that anyone in our government system has the job of rewarding people for doing good. I know of no one who’s been pulled over and commended for obeying the speed limit. However, we do know that there are those sent to punish evildoers and lawbreakers, and as Christians, we must not be among the evildoers.

But why? After all, doesn’t it seem like some of these things are silly? Doesn’t it feel like on occasion 30 mph is just a bit too slow, especially on a four-lane highway? It may, but if that’s the command of our governing officials, then we are called obey. And Peter tells us why in verses 15-16, writing, “For this is the will of God, that by doing good you should put to silence the ignorance of foolish people. Live as people who are free, not using your freedom as a cover-up for evil, but living as servants of God.”

God commands us to obey our governing authorities because in a world where people hate Christ and his followers, they are going to look for ammunition to come against the church. They are looking for anything to show why Christians are bad for society. And God says that we must silence them by obeying our governing authorities. We are to use our freedom from the ways of this world to live as servants of God, doing good and not doing evil.

Peter declares that it would be a sick picture to try to claim freedom in Christ as our reason for disobedience and doing evil. Rather we are to obey governing authorities because Christ commands it. And then Peter sums up, writing in verse 17, “Honor everyone. Love the brotherhood. Fear God. Honor the emperor.” That is to say, in summary, as Christians in this world we are to honor everyone around us. However, we are to especially love those who are brothers and sisters in Christ. And we are called to fear our God and not man. Yet we are called to honor the emperor as a way of fearing our God.

Therefore, as we ask the question, “How are we to live in the world when we are under the authority of one who is not of this world and have many people in authority who hate our Lord?” the answer is that we are submit to them, obeying their commands, and only disobeying when we are commanded to sin.

And then Peter focuses us a bit in our day-to-day lives, turning next to slaves (or a fitting parallel, employees).

Slaves are to submit to their masters (2:18-25)

Peter writes in verse 18, “Servants, be subject to your masters with all respect, not only to the good and gentle but also to the unjust.”¹

In the setting in which Peter wrote, slavery was a common reality. In some cases, however, it wasn’t always a horrible reality. Some men became slaves because they had incurred debts which they were not able to pay and were able to pay that debt by becoming a slave. And some slaves were able to be educated, possibly even educated better than their masters. Indeed, some slaves decided to remain slaves even when they could go free.

Yet at the same time, there were some difficult situations in slavery. Men were beaten and abused. And indeed some slaves might be beaten simply because they were following Christ. So, as those who were slaves, hearing that God saw them as precious and his own possession, how were they to respond to their masters? Peter says they are to submit to them, and not just to the good and gentle but also to the unjust.

Why? Was Peter asking them to pretend like their masters deserved it? No. In fact, Peter’s command has nothing to do with the worth of their masters. It has to do with God. He tells them to be subject to their masters “with all respect” or literally, “with all fear.” I think Peter means here with all fear of God. That is, just as with governing authorities, we are to submit to our masters because of God, for his sake, because he commands it. Again, even as Peter envisions those in position of governing authority to have no reason to hurl insults at believers, so masters of slaves should be the same position. We should give them no reason to slander Christ and his followers by our unnecessary disobedience. We should submit to them except where we are called to sin.

“But,” someone may ask, “What if they are the kind of masters who beat their slaves when we obey Christ?” Or “If we are called to be subject to them, what does that look like when we can’t obey because it would be sin, and then they beat us?” Peter addresses that as well in verses 19-20, writing, “For this is a gracious thing, when, mindful of God, one endures sorrows while suffering unjustly. For what credit is it if, when you sin and are beaten for it, you endure? But if when you do good and suffer for it you endure, this is a gracious thing in the sight of God.”

First, Peter declares that there is nothing praiseworthy about enduring a beating when you’ve done something wrong. However, he acknowledges that there could be occasions when you’ve honored God and are still beaten. You’ve done nothing wrong but are unjustly punished. And in those times, you are to endure it, not complaining or griping. Even in those times when our obedience to Christ has led us to have to disobey and we are beaten for it, even then we are simply to accept the beating, to accept the persecution.

But, we might say, that isn’t fair. Are you telling us that we are called just to take punishment that we don’t deserve? Peter reminds us, if that is our response, of the one we are following. He writes in verses 21-25, “For to this you have been called, because Christ also suffered for you, leaving you an example, so that you might follow in his steps. He committed no sin, nor was deceit found in his mouth. When he was reviled, eh did not revile in return, when he suffered, he did not threaten, but continued entrusting himself to him who judges justly. He himself bore our sins in his body on the tree, that we might die to sin and live to righteousness. By his wounds you have been healed. For you were straying like sheep, but have now returned to the Shepherd and Overseer of your souls.”

We have been called to follow Christ (who left the example of suffering for us), and one promise that entails is suffering and persecution in this world. The call to us is to take up our cross, and that means death. That is what it means to follow Christ. It means the willingness to lose our lives in this world so that we might find them in the next. That’s what it means to follow one who died for us and suffered unjustly at the hands of men.

Yet we know that even as we are suffering unjustly in this life, even that is pleasing to God and will be rewarded by him. That, it seems, is the meaning of the statement that this is a gracious thing in the sight of God. And we endure just as Christ did, entrusting our own judgment and that of those persecuting us to our just God, who will judge justly.

And also, if as we endure suffering we are rewarded by God, then we should see such suffering in our lives as a sovereign means, given by God whereby he might bless us. Therefore, we should count it an honor to suffer for Christ’s sake in this world because he has redeemed us as straying sheep and is now our Shepherd and Ruler.

Thus, Peter has addressed Christians under governing authorities, slaves with their masters, and yet he doesn’t leave out the home. Next, he addresses wives in relation to their husbands. And as we might expect, we find a similar theme here.

Wives are to submit to their husbands (3:1-7)

Peter writes, “Likewise, wives, be subject to your own husbands, so that even if some do not obey the word, they may be won without a word by the conduct of their wives – when they see your respectful and pure conduct” (3:1-2).

Wives are to submit to their husbands. This is something we know, something we’ve studied as we looked at Ephesians 5, as wives have been given a particular role in marriage to picture the church’s relationship to Christ. However, a wife might ask how she should respond to an unbelieving husband. Peter’s answer, however, does not vary from Paul’s command. He writes that wives should be subject to their own husbands so that even if their husbands aren’t believers their wives’ testimonies of respectful and pure conduct would win their husbands to the Lord.

One can imagine for an unbelieving husband, a wife who is speaking to him constantly about his need to repent and believe could become a source of irritation, driving him away from her (and possibly the Lord). However, a wife who simply submits to her husband, respects him, and walks in pure conduct will be an attractive force to the gospel. And again, we should add that wives should submit in all things except in cases when her husband asks her to sin. Then she must obey God by not obeying her husband.

Then, Peter gives the wives particulars of actions she should take in order to walk in pure conduct. He writes, “Do not let your adorning be external – the braiding of hair, the wearing of gold, or the putting on of clothing – but let your adorning be the hidden person of the heart with the imperishable beauty of a gentle and quiet spirit, which in God’s sight is very precious” (3:3-4).

Instead of driving unbelieving husbands away with much talking, Peter’s “without-a-word” witness is shown as the wife adorns herself with a gentle and quiet spirit. He does not want them to make their priorities to adorn themselves externally with expensive and immodest attire but with an inner beauty. Now, Peter can’t have in mind here a command never to braid one’s hair or never to wear jewelry, for then we would have to interpret his command not to put on clothing as a command for wives to walk around without clothes throughout life. Rather, the idea is that these things should not be extravagant, immodest, or the focus of the wife’s attraction. Instead it should be a gentle and quite spirit.

Then, he gives an example of women of old, writing, “For this is how the holy women who hoped in God used to adorn themselves, by submitting to their husbands, as Sarah obeyed Abraham, calling him lord. And you are her children, if you do good and do not fear anything that is frightening” (3:5-6).

He points specifically to Sarah who adorned herself by submitting to her husband. In fact, with a reference to Genesis 18:12, he can point out that even when Sarah laughs at the thought that she and Abraham could have a child in their old age, she calls her “her lord,” showing how much respect and subjection to her husband was simply part of her character.

And yet with the last phrase about not fearing, no doubt Peter has in mind the fact that sometimes wives will have to disobey their husbands out of obedience to Christ, and in those times Peter urges them not to fear but to trust in the One who will vindicate them on the last day.

Yet Peter doesn’t leave this section without addressing the husbands. He writes in 3:7, “Likewise, husbands, live with your wives in an understanding way, showing honor to the woman as the weaker vessel, since there are heirs with you of the grace of life, so that your prayers may not be hindered.” Quite possibly Peter’s exhortation for husbands to deal with their wives “in an understanding way” actually carries the idea of living with their wives according to the knowledge of God, or conscious of God. That is to say, husbands are to use their positions of authority to love their wives, care for them, lay down their lives for them, and (in this instance) show them honor, though they might be weaker by recognizing that their wives are not inferior to them by heirs with them of eternal life. In fact, should husbands refuse this their prayers will be hindered, as God will not put up with a husband not honoring the one given to him to care for and love.

Therefore, we find three exhortations for submission, all of us to governing authorities, slaves to masters (or employees to employers), and wives to their own husbands. Then, Peter ends the section with a general declaration for all of us to lives God-honoring lives.

We are all to live with godly character (3:8-12)

These final verses provide a summary for living as a Christian. We are to love the brothers, being humble, unified, tender-hearted, and sympathetic (v. 8). And we are not to repay evil to those who do us evil but to bless them (v. 9). We do this because this is what righteousness looks like, even as Psalm 34 reminds us that the righteous man keeps his tongue from evil and pursues peace. And this man is seen by God and heard by God, whereas the Lord is against the evildoer (vv. 10-12).

Thus, this is a summary. We can walk subject to authorities in our life, even when it causes us difficulty because God sees us, hears us, honors us, and will judge those who do evil. Therefore, may we today go out into the world, into our jobs, and into our homes, knowing that to live under the authority of Christ in this world means that we submit to our governing authorities, our employers, and (wives) to our own husbands, except when they would command us to sin. Otherwise, we submit and give the world no ammunition to come against the Bible.

And as this becomes hard, simply remember Christ’s example and the fact that God sees and hears you, and he will one day vindicate you. Therefore, may we draw strength for obedience by remember what God has already done for us in Christ as we come to the table. Amen.

¹I am tempted here to say simply that employees must obey employers, for otherwise the text doesn’t seem applicable to us. And, I do think that we can apply this text to ourselves as employees. However, there are a few differences that make the text not as weighty if we just think in terms of employees-employers. For example, we can always quit our jobs, while slaves could not necessarily quit. Therefore, let’s look at this section simply speaking of slaves toward masters so that we feel the weight of Peter’s words, making some application along the way that would apply to us in regards to our employment.

LIVING UNDER THE AUTHORITY OF CHRIST